Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in permitting me to speak against this motion to instruct. Mr. Speaker, I've been through this movie before as a member of the Budget Committee. This is not new ground. When it was first unveiled before us and I looked at the transportation provisions, I asked the Republican staff to pin down exactly the amount of money that is available. This essentially is what the Republican budget is, and it was not enough to meet the current obligations. It meant that there would be no new programming. And now we're bringing it to the floor with instructions to make sure that this is what the conference committee enacts. Let us be clear. What my friend and colleague from Oregon pointed out is that this is an opportunity for us to empower the private sector. Republicans and Democrats alike have been visited time and time and time again--first of all, you could hear from people in your district that the Recovery Act kept businesses afloat, kept people working, made a huge difference in every State in the union. Even though I agree with my colleague from Oregon that it wasn't enough infrastructure, but the contractors, electrical contractors, unions, and pavers were thankful for it to help many of them not go out of business. The list of people who oppose this amendment are not opposing it because our proposal is socialism. To the contrary.…”